Lame Duck councils likely in Frontenac townships

Jeff Green | Aug 07, 2014

Wayne Orr, the chief administrative officer for South Frontenac Township, has taken a look at the next few months and what he sees is a council that will have little opportunity to make decisions.

Based on the current state of registered candidates for the upcoming election, it is Orr’s assessment that the council will be in what is known as a ‘lame duck’ position as of September 12, and will not resume its full authority until a new council is sworn in on December 2^nd.

A ‘lame duck’ council cannot do any hiring or firing, cannot buy or sell any property worth more than $50,000, and it cannot spend money or take on any new liability exceeding that same $50,000 threshold, unless it is already included in the annual budget.

These functions can be accomplished, however, if Council delegates its authority to staff before the beginning of the election period.

Larger municipalities delegate all of these kinds of functions to staff all the time, but smaller municipalities take a more hands-on role at most times.

At their August meeting in Sydenham on Tuesday night, Council approved a proposal to delegate its authority for hiring, firing, and spending to CAO Wayne Orr until December 2.

South Frontenac will almost certainly be in a lame duck position as of September 12. It is a nine-member council (eight council members and one mayor) and the rules state that it will become lame if there is no possibility that the new council will include 75% of the membership of the out-going council

Mayor Davison is retiring, and since two members of the current council are seeking his position and only one will be elected, there is a guaranteed turnover of two positions. Councilors Larry York (Storrington) and Del Stowe (Bedford) are not registered to run again and indications are that they won’t be running. Unless they both change their mind, six or fewer members of the current council will have a chance of returning, and it will be a lame duck situation.

Orr also proposed canceling a number a meetings during the lame duck period. South Frontenac Council normally meets the first and third Tuesday of the month for a formal meeting and the 2^nd and 4^th Tuesday as a Committee of the Whole. This fall, instead of meeting weekly, Orr proposed that they don’t hold any Committee of the Whole meetings at all, and that one of the two council meetings be cancelled as well, leaving them with only one meeting a month, on the first Tuesday of the month.

Council already does this in the summer, so in effect there will be only five meetings between July 1 and December 2 this year.

Central Frontenac Council may also become lame duck on September 12. With Councilor Frances Smith challenging Mayor Janet Gutowski, one of them will be gone from the new council. As well, both of the current councilors from Olden, Norm Guntensperger and John Purdon, have not registered as candidates. Unless at least one of them runs again, the nine-member Central Frontenac Council will be lame after September 12.

In North Frontenac, which has a seven-member council, six of the seven need to seek re-election to avoid being a lame duck council during the election period. As of now, only four have registered - Bud Clayton, Gerry Martin, Fred Perry, and John Inglis. At least two more from among Lonnie Watkins, Wayne Good, and Betty Hunter will need to throw their hats back in the ring to avoid it.

In Addington Highlands Mayor Hogg and the ward 2 councilors, Helen Yanch and Bill Cox, are seeking re-election, but the incumbents in ward 1 are not registered. At least one of the two, Tony Fritsch or Adam Snider, will need to run to avoid the lame duck.

The rules around lame duck councils are based on the fear that council members who are not going to be around to deal with the consequences of their spending decisions will not be as prudent with taxpayers' money. If 75% of the people sitting around the table have a chance of being back after an election, the chances of that happening are reduced.